(13-11-2016 06:38 PM)Infront_of_the_Veil2 Wrote: I'm new to atheism and I told someone I was an atheist and they told me to "stop the nonsense" & I almost lost it. I wanted to demean his intelligence and let him have it "intelligently". I know a lot of atheists are well studied in religion and often times know holy books better than the followers of holy books, & I found myself writing an essay to him about everything that has definitely been proven incorrect and factual, but I deleted it and left it at, "I don't try to force my beliefs on you so I deserve the same respect". He agreed and said it's his duty to "save my soul" and that also made my blood boil because to me the idea of burning people for eternity is the most immoral thing possible and threatening them with that "believe or be damned" is tyrannical. How do the atheists here deal with encounters like this?

Respect their first amendment. You can also practice your by laughing as chas suggests.

We have to remember that what we observe is not nature herself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning ~ Werner Heisenberg

Perspective: You were just told to "stop the nonsense" by an adult with an imaginary friend.

---

Flesh and blood of a dead star, slain in the apocalypse of supernova, resurrected by four billion years of continuous autocatalytic reaction and crowned with the emergent property of sentience in the dream that the universe might one day understand itself.

I've honestly never been put right in the spotlight like that. Usually attempts at reconversion are made by my family, and I'm fairly good at skirting around the subject or debating them away.

But, if it ever came to it and I was confronted, repeatedly, with attempts to convince me my non-belief was 'wrong,' then I'd probably have a panic attack.

So my solution is just to avoid people who I know will 'pursue my soul.' Even past friends and moreover, family.

Because, really, those people are the kind least likely to respect your beliefs and opinions, no matter what you have to say, no matter how logically you explain it, because of how deeply ingrained they are in their belief. Even though they think they are helping you and their intentions are good (but grossly misguided), they will not back down and will only see you as the one guilty of burning bridges and being illogical.

(14-11-2016 10:46 PM)Celestial_Wonder Wrote: Don't tell them that you're an atheist and they won't try.

And if you quit posting, you won't get insulted.

I came here fully anticipating getting insulted. Although I don't think I've been personally insulted yet. The incident you're probably referring to being Leela and she was just insulting religion. Behavior that I sought to admonish her for. ^-^